\u2018Unfaithful\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"rihanna](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rihanna-videos-unfaithful.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\t\u201cUnfaithful,\u201d Mandler says, began with a phone call from Jay-Z. \u201cWe just signed this girl, Rihanna,\u201d the director recalls the Roc Nation founder telling him \u201cShe\u2019s incredible. I need you to do this video because we\u2019re trying to place her in the right lane. We need something really cinematic and dramatic that captures who she is.\u201d Having recently gone through a breakup, Mandler was drawn to the emotional account of love and deception that the A Girl Like Me<\/em> single told. \u201cThe way that the song is performed and the hurt in the voice, it felt like someone had lived so many lives,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I constructed this love story between her and this guy, it was more sophisticated than someone her age could generally understand. Most girls at that age are talking about young, cute love. This was tumultuous love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tThe video<\/a> was shot around New York, with an off-Broadway theater serving as a rendezvous point for Rihanna, who was 18 years old at the time, and the man she was leading her fictional affair with. Mandler directed her in the same way he would an actress. \u201cIt was the way she moved her body, it was in her fingertips, the way she looked away,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was the first setup where we knew we could do something amazing here. Her and I connected [because] I saw her as she really was, which I don\u2019t think a lot of other people had.\u201d She wanted to keep a piece of home with her as her career was taking off, so she had the Barbados flag drawn onto the wall of the theater. She told Mandler, \u201cI\u2019ll do this every video, everything I do.\u201d The tradition didn\u2019t last, but their creative partnership did. \u201cThe minute the music came on,\u201d he adds, \u201cher and I just had this incredible connection.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Disturbia\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"rihanna](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
![\"rihanna](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rihanna-videos-disturbia.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tThe day before Rihanna filmed \u201cDisturbia\u201d in Los Angeles, she took Mandler to lunch. \u201cWe sat down, and she\u2019s like, \u2018It\u2019s not far enough,\u2019\u201d he says. Last-minute treatment overhauls weren\u2019t ideal, but the singer had a vision. \u201cI\u2019m gonna paint my nails black,\u201d she told the director. \u201cI\u2019m gonna do Blade Runner<\/em> makeup. My hair is gonna look like this.\u201d Mandler\u2019s own inspiration board included Nine Inch Nails music videos, the eerie work of photographer Joel-Peter Witkin, and macabre themes, but filtered through beauty and danger. \u201cIt felt like a circus of freaks, a little bit, and she was the centerpiece of it,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cThat was a big deal for someone like her to accept that kind of position, like, \u2018I\u2019m not the girl next door.\u2019\u201d It was all they imagined and more \u2014 evocative, distinct, dark.<\/p>\n\n\tWhen the video<\/a> was finished, another call came in. This time it was from Def Jam. \u201cWe\u2019re not putting this out. It\u2019s too far. It\u2019s going to ruin her career,\u201d Mandler recalls the label saying. \u201cIt became a very big discussion about whose choice it was.\u201d This was his fifth video with Rihanna, and he\u2019d seen her pushing to get to this point. \u201cShe had been wanting to come to this moment for years, but she finally had the record and the moment to do it,\u201d he says. He showed her some of Madonna\u2019s most iconic videos to demonstrate \u201chow far ahead of the curve she was and how she kept pushing the ball.\u201d Rihanna felt ready to take the next step in her career visually, even if she had to pay for it herself and there was no turning back. \u201cYou can\u2019t go this far and then unwind it,\u201d Mandler adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cIt was a very intense 24 hours,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I recall, she just pressed the button and sent it in. She took command at that moment. I bet the label that it was going to be the biggest video she ever had. Within 24 hours, it eclipsed everything else.\u201d The record appeared on Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded, <\/em>an extended version of Rihanna\u2019s third studio album that cemented her status as an immovable pop force. \u201cYou have to be willing to cannibalize who and what you are in order to stay ahead of the curve, or you\u2019re going to be replaced by somebody else,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cWe shared a directing credit because she was more involved with it than most videos. She certainly took a lot of ownership in the creative more than ever, because I think she knew that this was the moment where she was going to change her path.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Rehab\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"rihanna](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rihanna-videos-rehab.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tJustin Timberlake isn\u2019t officially a featured artist on the Good Girl Gone Bad <\/em>single \u201cRehab,\u201d but he did earn a credit for the music video<\/a>. He co-wrote and produced the record with Timbaland and Hannon Lan, then joined Rihanna in the desert. \u201cIt was strangely futuristic and dystopian,\u201d Mandler says. His references were more classic, but mirrored the star power of the pairing. \u201cWe were referencing Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, these historic couples that were just \u2018one plus one equals 10,\u2019\u201d the director says. He was also drawn to Sharon Stone and Grace Jones, particularly their potent confidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve already been through everything with Chris [Brown] at that point,\u201d Mandler adds. \u201cShe was in control of her sexuality and her female empowerment, she didn\u2019t have to try hard. She could take a man and use him as a prop, push him around, throw him on a car. She was the alpha. That was fun to play with.\u201d Timberlake was still riding the high of FutureSex\/LoveSounds<\/em><\/a> when \u201cRehab\u201d was released. \u201cJustin was at his height, at that moment, and he was such a big star,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cPlaying up his sexuality and his confidence and masculinity \u2014 and then seeing the two of them sort of clash, because they\u2019re both alphas, but there\u2019s a beautiful dance between them \u2014 you can really feel the tension.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tThere\u2019s a heat to the performance, potentially related to Timberlake wearing biker gear in the desert while Rihanna cycled through five different outfits. But the evident friction, Mandler notes, does come from the song itself. \u201cYou can feel that something traumatic has happened between these people. There\u2019s tension in the way that they interact with each other. But it\u2019s not like we\u2019re fighting. It\u2019s subversive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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\n\u2018Russian Roulette\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"rihanna](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rihanna-videos-russian-roulette.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tMandler considers \u201cRussian Roulette\u201d to be \u201cone of the most underappreciated\u201d releases in Rihanna\u2019s videography. She\u2019d shared ballads as singles before, like \u201cTake a Bow\u201d or \u201cHate That I Love You.\u201d Mandler helmed the videos for those, too. But as the lead single from Rated R<\/a>,<\/em> this was more suspenseful<\/a> and gritty. \u201cThis one has a strange prison psych ward and this game of Russian roulette \u2014 love and love lost, and the game you play with somebody,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cThe way the song is constructed, you hear the revolver spinning and you can hear the bullet going into the gun.\u201d The director drew influence from film noir, as well as Russian and German cinema. \u201cI was always trying to emphasize her strength as an actress, her strength to convey complicated emotions,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tStarring opposite Rihanna is Jesse Williams, who had recently joined Grey\u2019s Anatomy <\/em>as Dr. Jackson Avery. \u201cHe was very new. He\u2019s this really beautiful, poised, thoughtful guy,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cWatching them pass this gun back and forth, there\u2019s this tension.\u201d All the while, Rihanna narrates a chilling scene, singing, \u201cSay a prayer to yourself\/He says, close your eyes, sometimes it helps\/And then I get a scary thought\/That he\u2019s here means he\u2019s never lost.\u201d The song gave Mandler the perfect backdrop to expand on the narrative. The video shows her standing her ground while a car races toward her, and bleeding when a bullet pierces her underwater. \u201cMy language in everything I do is always trying to build characters and build stories,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you have great records to work with, it gives you a lot of leeway to take chances.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Te Amo\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"rihanna](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rihanna-videos-te-amo.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tBy the time \u201cTe Amo\u201d arrived as the final Rated R<\/em> single, Rihanna had entered a higher tier of stardom that transcended traditional pop restraints. She shared six singles from the record, including \u201cHard,\u201d \u201cWait Your Turn,\u201d \u201cRude Boy,\u201d and \u201cRockstar 101.\u201d That was nearly half of the album. Rihanna got the most bang for her buck out of Rated R,<\/em> so it makes sense that it would end on a note of gothic drama. \u201cThe song was really sexy, and wanted to be this gorgeous love story,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cTe Amo\u201d tells the story of unrequited love between Rihanna and another woman, played in the video by model Latisha Costa. \u201cThere was a natural attraction and tension between them,\u201d the director adds. \u201cYou start spending more time in Europe, you start understanding the definition of sexuality in Europe. You start seeing that there\u2019s a different perspective to the way that people process their feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tThe \u201cTe Amo\u201d video<\/a> was filmed at a chateau castle in France with extra smoke pumped into the space to create a sense of romantic surrealism. \u201cYou didn\u2019t forget that this was a female-on-female love story, but it kind of added an artfulness to it that allowed you to see the beauty in it, which is what we wanted,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a political statement. There was no, like, \u2018Hey, this is going to get a lot of publicity, and this is good for us.\u2019 It was very natural, and it was what she felt like doing at that moment.\u201d He compares the scenes of seduction between Rihanna and Costa to similar marks left on pop culture by artists like Madonna. \u201cIt was very honest, and I don\u2019t think there was any kind of baiting in this at all,\u201d Mandler adds. \u201cSome artists do that because they want attention. I don\u2019t think that was ever the intention at all on this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n- \n
\n\u2018Only Girl (in the World)\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"rihanna](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rihanna-videos-only-girl-in-the-world.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tWith Loud<\/a>, <\/em>Rihanna shed the darkness and moved into the light. \u201cOnly Girl (in the World)<\/a>\u201d marked the beginning of one of the most recognizable eras in pop history with an unmistakable pop of red. \u201cThis was kind of the return to her femininity and girliness, in a way,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cThere\u2019s something so youthful about it, but done now through the lens of \u2018Disturbia\u2019 and \u2018Russian Roulette.\u2019\u201d In alignment with the theme of the record, Rihanna is the only person who appears in the \u201cOnly Girl (in the World)\u201d video, dancing around an expansive, saturated landscape with carefree confidence. She was the quintessential Tumblr girl. \u201cWe wanted a girliness and fun to it, but we wanted it to still be through the Rihanna lens,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cThat\u2019s where you get the very editorial imagery and surreal imagery. We hand-colored every frame to make the landscape red and make it feel like a poppy over-the-top dream world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tKeeping the singer\u2019s era-defining hair color under wraps during filming was the biggest challenge. \u201cNo one could know that she had red hair, and it was very hard because paparazzi were following her around all the time,\u201d the director says. They filmed the video in a private facility near Los Angeles, transporting Rihanna to and from the location in a dark shuttle. \u201cThe night we pressed go on the video I was like, whoever owns the red hair dye at the local CVS could make a lot of money, because you\u2019re gonna see a lot of kids dyeing their hair \u2014 and that\u2019s what happened,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cShe\u2019s so brilliant at switching lanes. Everybody had basically taken the \u2018Disturbia\u2019 short hair, the leather, the record, and made it theirs. For her, it was like, \u2018OK, how do I change this up again? How do I go a different way?\u2019 The Coachella, California, girl through her lens was so brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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\n\u2018Man Down\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"rihanna](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rihanna-videos-man-down.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tRihanna and Mandler traveled to Jamaica to film \u201cMan Down,<\/a>\u201d an unnerving video that begins with the pop of a gun. \u201cI wrote that concept from the perspective of a woman that had been attacked and abused, and she got revenge,\u201d the director says. The opening scene shows Rihanna shooting a man in the middle of a train station with tears in her eyes. \u201cYou start by watching her commit this act, and then you start over by seeing the innocence and loss of innocence,\u201d he adds. \u201cThe worst thing you can do is take that away from somebody.\u201d Once an easygoing girl next door, she turns to violence after a man follows her out of a party and assaults her in a dark alleyway. \u201cNever thought I\u2019d do it,\u201d Rihanna sings, \u201cWhatever happened to me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cIt was powerful, and the song warranted us going for it,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cWith what Rihanna had gone through with Chris [Brown], this was a very deep-cutting song. We wanted to see if we could push the boundaries again.\u201d Internally, there was hesitancy similar to what preceded \u201cDisturbia,\u201d but this was a different beast. Mothers Against Violence and the Parents Television Council both called for the video to be banned, though BET refused to pull it from its rotation. \u201cIt felt controversial because it was the woman \u2014 not the man \u2014 getting revenge,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cIf it was her brother that went and did it, you would say, \u2018OK, street justice, that\u2019s OK.\u2019 But because she did it, it seemed to create this huge controversy. And part of that is women feeling comfortable speaking up for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThroughout the backlash, Mandler was adamant about centering the context of the murder. \u201cThat was the point of the story, not that she shot the man. He had attacked her, and probably deserved what happened to him,\u201d he said. \u201cMany people don\u2019t even say anything and have to live with that in quiet. We wanted to speak to that.\u201d The director sees the legacy of the record and its accompanying video as something that exists to hopefully \u201cinspire people to speak up and to not be silenced.\u201d Despite what critics may have believed, he continues, \u201cit\u2019s not there to tell girls to go get guns and shoot people, but it\u2019s metaphorical about taking your power.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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\n\u2018Diamonds\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t![\"rihanna](\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/rihanna-videos-diamonds.jpg?w=300\")
\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Youtube\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t<\/p>\n
\n\n\tSix years of collaboration led Rihanna and Mandler to \u201cDiamonds.\u201d The single was the first offering from Unapologetic,<\/em> her seventh album. \u201cWe understood each other so well, and she had such control of her craft and her person that I could then be really artful with her,\u201d the director says. There wasn\u2019t much they hadn\u2019t already done together, but the song itself was a career-defining release. Throughout the video<\/a>, Mandler toyed with analogies for love. \u201cThe two horses are lovers in the way that they interact, the rising female mare, it was just all power,\u201d he says. \u201cThe room that\u2019s destroyed that\u2019s slowly coming back together, every image was an analogy for love, which is the innate relationship between beauty and chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\tMandler and Rihanna hadn\u2019t worked together for a while when they reunited for \u201cDiamonds,\u201d their final video together. There were scheduling complications that almost caused the singer to miss the standout sunset shot, but they made it work. Today, it remains Rihanna\u2019s most-viewed video, with more than 2.4 billion views on YouTube. \u201cIt was her command of her voice and the tension in her voice,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cNo one could have done that but Rihanna. It wouldn\u2019t have had the depth, it wouldn\u2019t have the resonance. To be able to do all single shots, simple moments that mean so much, it\u2019s only her that could do that. It really was a culmination of all those years, like we were ratcheting up to that moment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cUnfaithful,\u201d Mandler says, began with a phone call from Jay-Z. \u201cWe just signed this girl, Rihanna,\u201d the director recalls the Roc Nation founder telling him \u201cShe\u2019s incredible. I need you to do this video because we\u2019re trying to place her in the right lane. We need something really cinematic and dramatic that captures who she is.\u201d Having recently gone through a breakup, Mandler was drawn to the emotional account of love and deception that the A Girl Like Me<\/em> single told. \u201cThe way that the song is performed and the hurt in the voice, it felt like someone had lived so many lives,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen I constructed this love story between her and this guy, it was more sophisticated than someone her age could generally understand. Most girls at that age are talking about young, cute love. This was tumultuous love.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe video<\/a> was shot around New York, with an off-Broadway theater serving as a rendezvous point for Rihanna, who was 18 years old at the time, and the man she was leading her fictional affair with. Mandler directed her in the same way he would an actress. \u201cIt was the way she moved her body, it was in her fingertips, the way she looked away,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was the first setup where we knew we could do something amazing here. Her and I connected [because] I saw her as she really was, which I don\u2019t think a lot of other people had.\u201d She wanted to keep a piece of home with her as her career was taking off, so she had the Barbados flag drawn onto the wall of the theater. She told Mandler, \u201cI\u2019ll do this every video, everything I do.\u201d The tradition didn\u2019t last, but their creative partnership did. \u201cThe minute the music came on,\u201d he adds, \u201cher and I just had this incredible connection.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tThe day before Rihanna filmed \u201cDisturbia\u201d in Los Angeles, she took Mandler to lunch. \u201cWe sat down, and she\u2019s like, \u2018It\u2019s not far enough,\u2019\u201d he says. Last-minute treatment overhauls weren\u2019t ideal, but the singer had a vision. \u201cI\u2019m gonna paint my nails black,\u201d she told the director. \u201cI\u2019m gonna do Blade Runner<\/em> makeup. My hair is gonna look like this.\u201d Mandler\u2019s own inspiration board included Nine Inch Nails music videos, the eerie work of photographer Joel-Peter Witkin, and macabre themes, but filtered through beauty and danger. \u201cIt felt like a circus of freaks, a little bit, and she was the centerpiece of it,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cThat was a big deal for someone like her to accept that kind of position, like, \u2018I\u2019m not the girl next door.\u2019\u201d It was all they imagined and more \u2014 evocative, distinct, dark.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen the video<\/a> was finished, another call came in. This time it was from Def Jam. \u201cWe\u2019re not putting this out. It\u2019s too far. It\u2019s going to ruin her career,\u201d Mandler recalls the label saying. \u201cIt became a very big discussion about whose choice it was.\u201d This was his fifth video with Rihanna, and he\u2019d seen her pushing to get to this point. \u201cShe had been wanting to come to this moment for years, but she finally had the record and the moment to do it,\u201d he says. He showed her some of Madonna\u2019s most iconic videos to demonstrate \u201chow far ahead of the curve she was and how she kept pushing the ball.\u201d Rihanna felt ready to take the next step in her career visually, even if she had to pay for it herself and there was no turning back. \u201cYou can\u2019t go this far and then unwind it,\u201d Mandler adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt was a very intense 24 hours,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I recall, she just pressed the button and sent it in. She took command at that moment. I bet the label that it was going to be the biggest video she ever had. Within 24 hours, it eclipsed everything else.\u201d The record appeared on Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded, <\/em>an extended version of Rihanna\u2019s third studio album that cemented her status as an immovable pop force. \u201cYou have to be willing to cannibalize who and what you are in order to stay ahead of the curve, or you\u2019re going to be replaced by somebody else,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cWe shared a directing credit because she was more involved with it than most videos. She certainly took a lot of ownership in the creative more than ever, because I think she knew that this was the moment where she was going to change her path.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tJustin Timberlake isn\u2019t officially a featured artist on the Good Girl Gone Bad <\/em>single \u201cRehab,\u201d but he did earn a credit for the music video<\/a>. He co-wrote and produced the record with Timbaland and Hannon Lan, then joined Rihanna in the desert. \u201cIt was strangely futuristic and dystopian,\u201d Mandler says. His references were more classic, but mirrored the star power of the pairing. \u201cWe were referencing Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio, these historic couples that were just \u2018one plus one equals 10,\u2019\u201d the director says. He was also drawn to Sharon Stone and Grace Jones, particularly their potent confidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve already been through everything with Chris [Brown] at that point,\u201d Mandler adds. \u201cShe was in control of her sexuality and her female empowerment, she didn\u2019t have to try hard. She could take a man and use him as a prop, push him around, throw him on a car. She was the alpha. That was fun to play with.\u201d Timberlake was still riding the high of FutureSex\/LoveSounds<\/em><\/a> when \u201cRehab\u201d was released. \u201cJustin was at his height, at that moment, and he was such a big star,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cPlaying up his sexuality and his confidence and masculinity \u2014 and then seeing the two of them sort of clash, because they\u2019re both alphas, but there\u2019s a beautiful dance between them \u2014 you can really feel the tension.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThere\u2019s a heat to the performance, potentially related to Timberlake wearing biker gear in the desert while Rihanna cycled through five different outfits. But the evident friction, Mandler notes, does come from the song itself. \u201cYou can feel that something traumatic has happened between these people. There\u2019s tension in the way that they interact with each other. But it\u2019s not like we\u2019re fighting. It\u2019s subversive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tMandler considers \u201cRussian Roulette\u201d to be \u201cone of the most underappreciated\u201d releases in Rihanna\u2019s videography. She\u2019d shared ballads as singles before, like \u201cTake a Bow\u201d or \u201cHate That I Love You.\u201d Mandler helmed the videos for those, too. But as the lead single from Rated R<\/a>,<\/em> this was more suspenseful<\/a> and gritty. \u201cThis one has a strange prison psych ward and this game of Russian roulette \u2014 love and love lost, and the game you play with somebody,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cThe way the song is constructed, you hear the revolver spinning and you can hear the bullet going into the gun.\u201d The director drew influence from film noir, as well as Russian and German cinema. \u201cI was always trying to emphasize her strength as an actress, her strength to convey complicated emotions,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tStarring opposite Rihanna is Jesse Williams, who had recently joined Grey\u2019s Anatomy <\/em>as Dr. Jackson Avery. \u201cHe was very new. He\u2019s this really beautiful, poised, thoughtful guy,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cWatching them pass this gun back and forth, there\u2019s this tension.\u201d All the while, Rihanna narrates a chilling scene, singing, \u201cSay a prayer to yourself\/He says, close your eyes, sometimes it helps\/And then I get a scary thought\/That he\u2019s here means he\u2019s never lost.\u201d The song gave Mandler the perfect backdrop to expand on the narrative. The video shows her standing her ground while a car races toward her, and bleeding when a bullet pierces her underwater. \u201cMy language in everything I do is always trying to build characters and build stories,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you have great records to work with, it gives you a lot of leeway to take chances.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tBy the time \u201cTe Amo\u201d arrived as the final Rated R<\/em> single, Rihanna had entered a higher tier of stardom that transcended traditional pop restraints. She shared six singles from the record, including \u201cHard,\u201d \u201cWait Your Turn,\u201d \u201cRude Boy,\u201d and \u201cRockstar 101.\u201d That was nearly half of the album. Rihanna got the most bang for her buck out of Rated R,<\/em> so it makes sense that it would end on a note of gothic drama. \u201cThe song was really sexy, and wanted to be this gorgeous love story,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cTe Amo\u201d tells the story of unrequited love between Rihanna and another woman, played in the video by model Latisha Costa. \u201cThere was a natural attraction and tension between them,\u201d the director adds. \u201cYou start spending more time in Europe, you start understanding the definition of sexuality in Europe. You start seeing that there\u2019s a different perspective to the way that people process their feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe \u201cTe Amo\u201d video<\/a> was filmed at a chateau castle in France with extra smoke pumped into the space to create a sense of romantic surrealism. \u201cYou didn\u2019t forget that this was a female-on-female love story, but it kind of added an artfulness to it that allowed you to see the beauty in it, which is what we wanted,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a political statement. There was no, like, \u2018Hey, this is going to get a lot of publicity, and this is good for us.\u2019 It was very natural, and it was what she felt like doing at that moment.\u201d He compares the scenes of seduction between Rihanna and Costa to similar marks left on pop culture by artists like Madonna. \u201cIt was very honest, and I don\u2019t think there was any kind of baiting in this at all,\u201d Mandler adds. \u201cSome artists do that because they want attention. I don\u2019t think that was ever the intention at all on this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tWith Loud<\/a>, <\/em>Rihanna shed the darkness and moved into the light. \u201cOnly Girl (in the World)<\/a>\u201d marked the beginning of one of the most recognizable eras in pop history with an unmistakable pop of red. \u201cThis was kind of the return to her femininity and girliness, in a way,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cThere\u2019s something so youthful about it, but done now through the lens of \u2018Disturbia\u2019 and \u2018Russian Roulette.\u2019\u201d In alignment with the theme of the record, Rihanna is the only person who appears in the \u201cOnly Girl (in the World)\u201d video, dancing around an expansive, saturated landscape with carefree confidence. She was the quintessential Tumblr girl. \u201cWe wanted a girliness and fun to it, but we wanted it to still be through the Rihanna lens,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cThat\u2019s where you get the very editorial imagery and surreal imagery. We hand-colored every frame to make the landscape red and make it feel like a poppy over-the-top dream world.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tKeeping the singer\u2019s era-defining hair color under wraps during filming was the biggest challenge. \u201cNo one could know that she had red hair, and it was very hard because paparazzi were following her around all the time,\u201d the director says. They filmed the video in a private facility near Los Angeles, transporting Rihanna to and from the location in a dark shuttle. \u201cThe night we pressed go on the video I was like, whoever owns the red hair dye at the local CVS could make a lot of money, because you\u2019re gonna see a lot of kids dyeing their hair \u2014 and that\u2019s what happened,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cShe\u2019s so brilliant at switching lanes. Everybody had basically taken the \u2018Disturbia\u2019 short hair, the leather, the record, and made it theirs. For her, it was like, \u2018OK, how do I change this up again? How do I go a different way?\u2019 The Coachella, California, girl through her lens was so brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tRihanna and Mandler traveled to Jamaica to film \u201cMan Down,<\/a>\u201d an unnerving video that begins with the pop of a gun. \u201cI wrote that concept from the perspective of a woman that had been attacked and abused, and she got revenge,\u201d the director says. The opening scene shows Rihanna shooting a man in the middle of a train station with tears in her eyes. \u201cYou start by watching her commit this act, and then you start over by seeing the innocence and loss of innocence,\u201d he adds. \u201cThe worst thing you can do is take that away from somebody.\u201d Once an easygoing girl next door, she turns to violence after a man follows her out of a party and assaults her in a dark alleyway. \u201cNever thought I\u2019d do it,\u201d Rihanna sings, \u201cWhatever happened to me?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt was powerful, and the song warranted us going for it,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cWith what Rihanna had gone through with Chris [Brown], this was a very deep-cutting song. We wanted to see if we could push the boundaries again.\u201d Internally, there was hesitancy similar to what preceded \u201cDisturbia,\u201d but this was a different beast. Mothers Against Violence and the Parents Television Council both called for the video to be banned, though BET refused to pull it from its rotation. \u201cIt felt controversial because it was the woman \u2014 not the man \u2014 getting revenge,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cIf it was her brother that went and did it, you would say, \u2018OK, street justice, that\u2019s OK.\u2019 But because she did it, it seemed to create this huge controversy. And part of that is women feeling comfortable speaking up for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThroughout the backlash, Mandler was adamant about centering the context of the murder. \u201cThat was the point of the story, not that she shot the man. He had attacked her, and probably deserved what happened to him,\u201d he said. \u201cMany people don\u2019t even say anything and have to live with that in quiet. We wanted to speak to that.\u201d The director sees the legacy of the record and its accompanying video as something that exists to hopefully \u201cinspire people to speak up and to not be silenced.\u201d Despite what critics may have believed, he continues, \u201cit\u2019s not there to tell girls to go get guns and shoot people, but it\u2019s metaphorical about taking your power.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n \t<\/p>\n \n\tSix years of collaboration led Rihanna and Mandler to \u201cDiamonds.\u201d The single was the first offering from Unapologetic,<\/em> her seventh album. \u201cWe understood each other so well, and she had such control of her craft and her person that I could then be really artful with her,\u201d the director says. There wasn\u2019t much they hadn\u2019t already done together, but the song itself was a career-defining release. Throughout the video<\/a>, Mandler toyed with analogies for love. \u201cThe two horses are lovers in the way that they interact, the rising female mare, it was just all power,\u201d he says. \u201cThe room that\u2019s destroyed that\u2019s slowly coming back together, every image was an analogy for love, which is the innate relationship between beauty and chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMandler and Rihanna hadn\u2019t worked together for a while when they reunited for \u201cDiamonds,\u201d their final video together. There were scheduling complications that almost caused the singer to miss the standout sunset shot, but they made it work. Today, it remains Rihanna\u2019s most-viewed video, with more than 2.4 billion views on YouTube. \u201cIt was her command of her voice and the tension in her voice,\u201d Mandler says. \u201cNo one could have done that but Rihanna. It wouldn\u2019t have had the depth, it wouldn\u2019t have the resonance. To be able to do all single shots, simple moments that mean so much, it\u2019s only her that could do that. It really was a culmination of all those years, like we were ratcheting up to that moment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u2018Disturbia\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Rehab\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Russian Roulette\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Te Amo\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Only Girl (in the World)\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Man Down\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018Diamonds\u2019<\/h2>\n